Computer Literacy Essay

Thou shall not vandalize Web pages. Thou shall not shut down Web sites. Thou shall not begrudge thy neighbors MP3s. FBI agents ar spreading a new gospel to parents and thatched roofers, hoping theyll better educate youths that vandalism in cyberspace can be economically costly and just as criminal as mailbox bashing and graffiti spraying. The Justice De luckment and the Information Technology Association of America, a trade group, has launched the Cybercitizen federation to encourage educators and parents to talk to children in ways that equate computer crimes with old-fashioned wrongdoing.The nascent effort includes a series of seminars around the country for teachers, classroom materials and guides and a Web site to help parents talk to children. In a democracy in general, we cant have the police everywhere, said Michael Vatis, director of the FBIs national Infrastructure Protection Center, which guards against computer attacks by terrorists, foreign agents and teen hackers. On e of the most important ways of reducing crime is trying to teach ethical motive and morality to our kids. That akin principle needs to apply to the cyber world, he said.Recognizing Virtual CrimeVatis and other FBI agents attended a kickoff seminar, titled the National Conference on Cyber Ethics, last weekend at Marymount University in Arlington, Va. Part of the challenge Many teens still consider computer mischief harmless. A modern survey found that 48 percent of students in elementary and middle school dont consider hacking illegal. Gail Chmura, a computer science teacher at Oakton High School in Vienna, Va., makes ethics a constant in her curriculum, teaching kids about topics such as computer law, software plagiarization and online cheating. She has argued with students who dont see that stealing from a computer with bad security is as wrong asstealing from an unlocked house. Its ever so interesting that they dont see a connection between the two, Chmura said. They just dont get it.The FBIs Vatis tells students, Do you think it would be OK to go spray-paint your neighbors house or the grocery store down the street? On a Web site, its the same sort of thing. Its somebodys storefront or an extension of themselves. Chmura tries similar messages. For instance, she asks a budding composer how he would feel if his music was stolen and given away online. They do sometimes realize that when theyre copying someones product, its not just that 5 cent disk, but someones work that theyre copying, she said. I think they do come to appreciate the fact that its somebodys salary theyre stealing.Driving base of operations ConsequencesVatis cites a long list of cyber crimes perpetrated by minors, including attacks on defense department computers in 1998 and the February jamming of major Web sites such as Amazon.com and eBay. He tries to fuck off home the consequences of hacking including the resources it drains from his center, as law enforcement scrambles to find wh o is responsible at the outset of an attack. Authorities dont know if its a terrorist or a foreign military, Vatis said. It diverts very scarce resources of people who are trying to focus on crime, warfare and terrorism. And children arent the only ones in need of training.College students and parents also are frequently undecided about what crosses an ethical boundary in cyberspace, where anyone can download pirated musical recordings. We had some discussion about the legalities of whether youre sharing something with your suspensor or burning CDs to sell at your school, said Deborah Price of Lewisville, N.C., parent of a 14-year-old daughter. Im not real certain about Napster ethics myself. Price whose daughter uses Napster, the music-sharing service considered a threat to the recording industry feels that computer ethics are an important issue. I think it should be part of the discussion at the school, Price said. Its only going to get bigger.ReferencesABC News W A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 10FBI Pushes for Cyber Ethics EducationBy D. Ian Hopperhttp//abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=119369